Lex Cosmetics – Tuilleries

I’m writing this on Sunday night and I have to admit that the events over the last 24 hours have left me a little melancholy. For many reasons, I’m sure I’m not the only one who went looking for a cheer-me-up polish this morning.I turned on my polish radar and almost immediately grabbed Tuilleries by Lex Cosmetics.

Tuilleries is a delicate sheer pink jelly with orange, magenta, and silver hex glitter with much smaller glitter in the same colors throughout (FYI: It’s same gorgeous glittery goodness as Dying Embers).

So… why did I pick Tuilleries as my pick me up? (A) Really? Look at it! (B) Tuilleries was created by Amanda (The Nail Polish Enthusiast) – I’ve gotten to know her on twitter and I’m so lucky! She’s so genuine and down to earth and all around awesome. (C) It feels good to give back, this polish benefits lung cancer research. It’s a cause that’s very close to my heart.

Check below for some more pictures and maybe a few random thoughts of the day.

Happy Monday.

Julep – Kennedy

Welcome to another Monday Funday with Katie! I’m in full on vacation mode and I’m loving all of the polishes I chose from Julep’s Sail Into Summer collection!

I loved Nan, and I’m loving Kennedy too! In addition to the It Girl box I chose Kennedy and Bunny as add-ons – SO worth it.

Kennedy is described as a khaki creme. When I first opened the box, I was a little disappointed in Kennedy. It’s a bit more yellow than I was expecting. I’d envisioned something closer to Essie’s Sand Tropez, but since then it’s really grown on me and I love the color. It looks great with a tan and makes me feel very classy – as I usually feel when I wear more neutral shades.

The application was really awesome – I used two coats and they were smooth and easy – great formula on this one. Two thumbs up.

What do you think? Check below for another picture or two and to see what book I’ll be reading next!

CoverGirl Glosstinis – Appletini

Happy Monday & welcome to the afternoon edition of The Daily Varnish! Horray! Confession time. I have a lot of green polish, but I will very rarely pick a green to wear. I may have found an exception. After Alli posted her Birthday Mani using PISTOL polish Dean’s List and Guns Blazing, I found myself in ABSOLUTE DIRE  need of a chartreuse green! Lemming city! I was going to pick up Essie’s The More the Merrier but when I passed by the CoverGirl Glosstini display at Target last week opted for Appletini!

This cute little polish is a darling chartreuse green. The application was just ace. The first coat was a little streaky but it evened out with two coats and I did three for good measure! My only complaint is that since it’s such a small bottle, the square top a bit bulky and hard to maneuver – it won’t stop me from grabbing a few more Glosstinis if they catch my eye, though.

There are some more pictures under the jump! Enjoy!!!!

Julep – Nan

I have been raving about this polish ever since it arrived! Nan was the first polish I used from my June Julep Maven box and it’s been a whirlwind love affair! This polish was the main reason I decided to get my June Julep box (to see my unboxing post head over to The Daily Varnish Extra!)

Nan is described as a “nantucket red creme.” Get it? Nan…tucket! But in more familiar terms, it’s a warm faded/dusty red with yellow undertones. Alli says it’s falls in the salmon range. It’s insanely work appropriate and elegant. My camera decided that Nan is more coral than I think it is…so I have pictures from both my camera and my iPhone for comparison!  Guest starring my super cool K paperweight. Get excited!

Application was dreamy. I’d read some reviews before I tried it and people had said it was runny and thin and prone to pooling in the cuticles – I am so happy to say I haven’t had any of these problems!

So what do you think? Happy Monday!

PS: If you’re interested in signing up for a Julep Box, I included lots of promo codes on my unboxing post for June’s box!

JulieG – Hot Cinnamon

Ta da! My love affair with textured polishes continues! A little while back, Alli ordered the entire JulieG Frosted Gumdrops collection. Lucky for me, she sent me two: Hot Cinnamon and Tangerine Dream.

Now.. I’ll be honest. When I first started looking at textured polishes – the red ones totally turned me off – I much preferred the softer colors (OPI Liquid Sand – Pussy Galore, OPI Liquid Sand Honey Ryder, ZOYA – NYX). So – shhh – I was a little bummed when I saw that Alli one of the two polishes Alli sent was Hot Cinnamon – don’t tell her that though, she’ll stop sending me polish!

Hot cinnamon is a bright -perfect for summer- cherry red polish. These polishes have a great wear time – I’ve worn both  few times and I’ve had no chipping or tip wear either time.

NOW, I’m happy to report that once again I’ve been swayed to the other side of the fence and I love this look- so much that I’d be open to trying other textured reds! I chose this polish to wear in honor of the True Blood premiere last night! PERFECT! 🙂

Happy Monday!

Layla Gel Effect 11 – Tropical Island

Press Sample

It’s no secret that my nails are less than perfect. I’ve tried several ridge fillers and tricks to attempt to hide the split down my middle nail over the last few months. So, when Layla sent Alli a polish from their new Gel Effects line I was really chomping at the bit to try it! I was even more excited to see it was Tropical Island, a bold and bright turquoise. Perfect for summer!

According to Layla, The Layla Gel Effect Nail Polish has the performance of a semi-permanent gel polish in terms of brilliance, scratchless, and is a ridge filler!

You can guess that the ridge filling potential is what had me most excited! Even though the instructions say not to use a base coat – I did anyway since teal polishes are so unforgiving when it comes to staining nails.

Overall, I’m really pleased with this polish! It dries very quickly to beautiful smooth glossy. As far as it’s ridge filling capabilities, I’m very pleased and the finished effect is slightly above a ridge filler + polish manicure. I’m judging based on my middle finger grand canyon. I think someone who has imperfect nails or difficulty with ridges would absolutely be over the moon for this polish!

I really love that Layla keeps trying new things with their effects lines and can’t wait to see what they come up with next! I hope this display will appear at my local ULTA because I’d like to purchase a few different colors – the collection has 12 different shades.

For more information on how to Use Layla Gel Effect polish as well as more pictures, click below to read more!

Nail Art: Aquatic Polka Dots!

I woke up yesterday morning and decided I needed a fun manicure. I started off with a white base (Ulta Snow White) and got out a few polishes and my dotting tool! While I had originally thought I’d be doing some sort of patriotic mani, I ended up going in a completely different direction and just sort of went with it.

I used butter LONDON – Artful Dodger, LEX cosmetics – Atlantic, Milani – Dressmaker, Essie – Licorice, Essie – Where’s my Chauffeur, and GOSH – Holographic Hero.

I’m really kind of loving this manicure – it’s fun and different. It reminds me of mermaid scales. I really like the look of overlapping polka dots, plus it’s fairly fool proof for the nail art challenged (read: me!). I even like where the colors slightly bleed, I think it makes it look like raindrops 🙂

A few more pictures under the jump!

Happy Monday!

Katie

OPI – Jinx

Happy Monday!!! Can’t think of a better way to start off a rainy gloomy week than with another awesome polish from OPI’s The Bond Girls collection! After being a Liquid Sand skeptic for months, I’ve jumped on the band wagon and I can’t get enough. First I tried Pussy Galore – amazing. You guys raved about Honey Ryder and Jinx so I went back to grab those last week – Ulta was sold out of Jinx, and I absolutely had to have it so I ordered Jinx and Solitaire from Ebay.

I actually tried Solitaire (gorgeous by the way) first but since it’s going to be rainy and gloomy for the next few days I swapped it out for Jinx to brighten my day!Hands down, this is my favorite of the four – I can’t believe I gave it the brush off so easily when I first saw the display! It’s a warm coral with gold glitter that absolutely screams summer.

Since I’ve had such a great experience with these lovelies, I was wondering if I should go back to some of the earlier Liquid Sand polishes. Do you guys have any recommendations?

Hope you have an awesome start to your week!

OPI – Honey Ryder

Okay! Hooked! After my love affair with Pussy Galore, I decided to go back to Ulta today (yes today – that’s why my post is late) to pick up some more Liquid Sand polishes from OPI’s The Bond Girls collection. I had my mind set on Honey Ryder and Jinx.  Jinx was sold out, but they had one bottle of Honey Ryder left and I swooped it up! I’m actually looking at Jinx on ebay right now… I haven’t been this fixated on a collection or a particular polish in a long time. It’s kind of exciting!

I’m actually sipping on some coffee, watching The Good Wife, and applying this polish as I’m writing this post – time crunch! But hey – Honey Ryder is a one coater! Excellent – just my kind of polish.

Color wise, Honey Ryder is a stunning sparkly neutral gold – I think it might even look good on Alli! It’s a great seasonless gold. It reminds me a lot of a Liquid Sand version of Glitzerland from the Swiss collection.

Hope you all have a great afternoon!

OPI – Pussy Galore

Since my first experience with a textured polish was so great (Zoya – Nyx), I went to Ulta last night hoping to expand my textured horizons. I’d hoped for a few more Zoyas but they were out of Godiva and Vespa, so I kept wandering through the store until I came upon OPI’s The Bond Girls Collection.

The Bond Girls Collection features six polishes named for Bond Girls of years passed. It shouldn’t be any surprise that I gravitated towards the light pink: Pussy Galore. PG hails from the 007 film: Goldfinger. While I haven’t seen it, Alli assures me it’s a great movie. I may have to check it out. Admittedly, my Bond film exposure is a bit limited.

When I first got home I decided to look up some swatches and I was a bit disappointed – PG didn’t look all that awesome. I’m happy to report that it just is impossible to translate how pretty this polish is without seeing it in person. Pictures don’t do it justice. It dries to a dainty pearly pink with fuchsia (yes!) shimmer. Color wise it reminds me a lot of my all time favorite pink: Royal Flush Blush. Application was easy – two quick coats and I was all set.

I have to say, that part of the reason I’m loving these textured polishes is that – much like glitter – they do wonders for hiding my nail imperfections.

So, Bond fan? Liquid Sand fan? Let me know what you think! Keep reading for some more swatches!